1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food compositions and methods of preparation. More particularly, the present invention relates to coated snack food products of puffable farinaceous doughs and to the microwave puffing of preformed pieces of such doughs.
2. The Prior Art
It has long been known that certain farinaceous materials will expand or puff under appropriate heating conditions and will retain the expanded size upon cooling. Basically, such farinaceous materials are puffed by causing trapped moisture to expand from the liquid state to the vapor phase. Rapid heating or rapid depressurizing are the methods commonly used to convert hard, dense farinaceous dough pieces into the more palatable puffed porous crisp snack pieces.
Gun puffing exemplifies puffing by rapid depressurizing and is commonly used to prepare ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. Such products are generally prepared by puffing whole cereal grains or by puffing preformed pieces or pellets of cooked doughs prepared from various farinaceous materials. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,253,533 issued May 31, 1966 to John O. Benson and U.S. Pat. No. 3,246,990 issued Apr. 19, 1966 to J. J. Thompson et al). The puffing pieces prior to being puffed are referred in the art as "half products" or "snack preforms". Nutritionally fortified dough formulations for gun puffing are also known (see, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,687 issued Aug. 29, 1972 to Alexander L. Liepa; U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,279 issued Sept. 5, 1972 to William T. Bedenk; U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,728, issued Aug. 21, 1973 to William T. Bedenk et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,081 issued Nov. 26, 1974 to E. Epstein).
Deep-fat frying exemplifies puffing by rapid heating and is commonly used to prepare puffed snacks or dried food products (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,027,258 issued Mar. 27, 1962 to Markakies et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,966 issued Apr. 18, 1972 to M. E. Ball et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,193 issued Aug. 17, 1972 to E. F. Globe et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,356 issued Nov. 10, 1970 to J. O. Benson et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,511 issued May 30, 1972 to L. D. Williams et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,192 issued Aug. 17, 1971 to T. T. Kyoto et al). Commercially prepared puffed snacks of this type are widely sold.
While such puffed, deep-fat fried snacks are popular such snacks are not without disadvantages. Deep-fat fried puffed snacks typically have high fat levels which occasionally reach as high as 35% by weight. Such high fat levels render these snacks high in calories. The high fat levels also limit the shelf life of the puffed products even when carefully packaged.
Microwave heating has also been suggested as a rapid heating puffing method for various farinaceous materials including both cereals and snacks (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,294 issued Mar. 28, 1972 to N. G. Makotta et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,379, issued Nov. 21, 1972 to P. D. Cummisford et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,582 issued Nov. 19, 1974 to P. A. Blagdon et al). Thus, with the increasing penetration of consumer microwave oven units into the home oven market, puffed snack products could be prepared at the consumer's convenience by microwave puffing of commercially prepared puffable farinaceous dough pellets.
While microwave methods of preparing puffed products could eliminate certain disadvantages inherent in deep-fat frying such as high fat content and limited shelf life, microwave puffing is also not without certain disadvantages. When pellets of puffable farinaceous doughs are subjected to microwave heating not all the pellets successfully puff. Doughs formulated primarily for puffing by other puffing methods have particularly poor microwave puff success rates. Those pellets which do not successfully puff can dry, harden and even char under microwave heating. Thus, since even small numbers of unsuccessfully puffed pellets can deleteriously affect overall product quality, high puff success rates are vital to the provision of a consumer acceptable product. Also, since the field distributions of consumer microwave ovens are not uniform, even successfully puffed pellets are subject to a phenomenon characterized herein as "hot spotting". Hot spotting is the localized over-heating of smaller regions of one or more pellets. Hot spotting can undesirably cause discoloration resulting in a visually unattractive puffed piece. Hot spotting can also result in the development of off-flavors due to localized charring.
Sugar coated puffed snacks and ready-to-eat cereals are also known (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,822, issued June 4, 1974 to L. J. Henthorn et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,567 issued Apr. 13, 1975 to B. E. Tomlinson et al). Such coated products are typically prepared by first forming a puffed product and, thereafter, as a separate step combining the previously puffed product with a coating usually with simultaneous tumbling and high temperature heating (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,094,947 issued June 25, 1963 to J. Green et al). While such complex and inconvenient methods may be commercially practical to provide coated, puffed snacks, such methods of providing sugary coated, puffed snacks are not practical or are at least inconvenient for home preparation of coated, puffed snacks. Thus, it would be desirable to be able to prepare a sugary coated puffed snack conveniently by simply heating such as in a conventional consumer microwave oven whenever desired. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide food compositions and methods for the preparation of coated puffed snack products upon heating by conventional consumer microwave ovens.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide puffable food compositions having high puff success rates upon microwave heating.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide food products for preparing puffed snack products which minimize hot spotting upon microwave heating.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide processes for microwave puffing farinaceous dough pieces and simultaneously coating the puffed pieces with a sugared layer which upon cooling hardens into a glazed sugar coating.
It has been surprisingly discovered that the above objectives can be realized and superior puffable food compositions provided by formulating food compositions comprising a plurality of discreet puffable preformed farinaceous pieces and a puffing media through which the pieces are dispersed through or matrixed within. The puffing media comprise high levels of a nutritive carbohydrate sweetening agent and defined moisture levels.